Laura Bagshaw COPS with cameras are hitting the streets on the Magdalen Estate in Gorleston to curb anti-social behaviour fuelled by alcohol. Police say a group of between 30 and 40 youths are causing trouble on the estate and members of the Magdalen Safer Neighbourhood Team are arming themselves with cameras to discourage youths from causing trouble.

Laura Bagshaw

COPS with cameras are hitting the streets on the Magdalen Estate in Gorleston to curb anti-social behaviour fuelled by alcohol.

Police say a group of between 30 and 40 youths are causing trouble on the estate and members of the Magdalen Safer Neighbourhood Team are arming themselves with cameras to discourage youths from causing trouble.

Insp Alun Gibbs, head of the Magdalen and Bradwell Safer Neighbourhood Teams, said officers would use the cameras to obtain evidence of anti-social behaviour, which could help secure a conviction.

However, police have made massive in-roads in Magdalen and Bradwell over the last couple of weeks.

Bradwell has seen a 95pc reduction in crime over the last two weeks with 20 crimes reported between September 1 and 7 compared with just one crime reported in the week starting on September 8.

Reported crimes dropped by six on the Magdalen from 30 to 24 over the same period.

Insp Gibbs said the recovery of a Renault Megan and Fiat Punto, stolen from homes in Bradwell, had led police to arrest a 20-year-old man who has been released on police bail over the thefts. The same man is due to appear at Yarmouth Magistrates Court on October 3 charged with handling a stolen phone.

The cars were recovered from garages at the back of the Falstoff Arms, on Brasenose Avenue, and the man is on conditional bail.

On Monday Insp Richard Graveling, head of Gorleston SNT, stopped a car on the Magdalen and after searching the vehicle recovered two stolen sat navs.

The driver, 19-year-old Kevin Sanderson, of Gainsborough Drive, Bradwell, will appear at Yarmouth Magistrates Court on October 3 charged with theft from motor vehicle.

Insp Gibbs said: “We've had a problem with 30 to 40 youths congregating causing anti-social behaviour and committing crimes such as criminal damage and theft from motor vehicles. Our first move was to identify these individuals and target individual criminals by approaching their families and speaking with them in relation to their behaviour and we have also moved youths on.”

Insp Gibbs said intelligence showed there was a group of about three to four adults steering youths into criminality.

He said the Bradwell area had suffered a number of car thefts in recent months and following recent arrests police had made dents in car crime figures.

Insp Gibbs added: “This is an intelligence driven approach - it's about targeting the right people and responding to the concerns of the community and turning that into results.”